The present invention generally relates to devices for holding surgical instruments and more specifically to devices which also protect the tips of such instruments while providing visual inspection of said tips.
Surgical instruments must be sterilized before use in the operating room. Commonly such instruments are placed in plastic packages and submitted to steam or gas sterilization as is well-known.
Transparent plastic envelopes allow surgical personnel to identify the type of instrument. Such identification is often made through examination of the tip since instruments may differ significantly only with respect to the tip. However, problems have resulted in the past since many of these surgical instruments have sharp tips which tend to puncture any non-rigid container such as the plastic envelopes. If such puncture occurs the instrument may no longer be sterile, is subject to damage and is a health hazard to surgical personnel. Moreover, the plastic envelopes do not provide adequate protection to the instrument from impact and particularly the instrument tip itself.
In an attempt to solve these problems, one type of prior device is composed of a plurality of polyester foam pockets in side-by-side relation. An instrument is placed within each pocket. The foam of the backing member which extends above the pocket can be folded down to cover the upper portions of the retained instruments. The entire device may be rolled up if desired. Although this product offers puncture resistance and protection from impact, it does not permit the visual inspection of the instrument tip. In order to identify the instrument, hospital personnel must label each protective pouch with the name of the particular instrument. This procedure makes it awkward to reuse the device since each labeled pouch must be reused with the same type of instrument that was previously retained and sterilized.
Another prior device is the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 4,142,632, issued to Sandal. The Sandal device consists of a non-reticulated foam backing member of relatively small pore size for receiving a surgical instrument. Overlying and peripherally bonded to at least a portion of this member is a pouch which is composed of a reticulated foam having a very coarse pore size to allow visual inspection of the tip. While the Sandal device is satisfactory in many applications it suffers from a number of disadvantages. First, the pore size of the pouch member is so large, the sharp small tips of instruments can protrude through the foam. Secondly, the pouch member is of a density which does not allow clear visual inspection of the instrument tip. Thirdly, the instrument can easily catch on the mesh as it is being placed in the pouch which can be a nuisance to operating room personnel.
Thus, there remains a definite need for an instrument tip protector which provides puncture resistance to the instrument tip, protects the instrument from impact and permits the clear, accurate visual inspection of the instrument tip.